


Terms and Conditions

by prairiecrow



Series: Terra Incognita [9]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Knight Rider (1982)
Genre: Androids, Angst, Arguing, Established Relationship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Medical Care, Repair, Robot Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-24 08:45:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of "Terms of Engagement", Tony Stark and Kitt have an important discussion about the relationship of the past to the present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terms and Conditions

JARVIS's attention was, of course, everywhere at once in Tony Stark's domain, but at 1:13 a.m. on a Sunday morning even Stark Tower was a singularly quiet place. Take Lab Three, for example, which was currently dark except for a pool of light over one particular work bench, and deserted save for two figures who sat facing each other in that circle of concentrated radiance, wearing what was left of a pair of expensive suits.  

One of them, naked from the waist up, was resting his left forearm on the table while the other, still in shirtsleeves although his jacket was off and carelessly tossed aside, bent over that limb wielding a fine-gauge electronic microtool, his face taut with concentration. Synth skin and gold-titanium plates were peeled back to permit him to work, baring the machine's inner workings from shoulder to wrist, and on the table to his right he had neatly arranged the mechanical components from the arm's interior, some of them slightly scorched and definitely in need of replacement. 

"You really did a number on the capacitor array," he muttered through clenched teeth while his vital signs all telegraphed a high degree of displeasure, poking into what would have been a human's bicep. 

His companion, who lacked a heartbeat or other markers for JARVIS to read, raised his chin to look haughtily down his nose. "I didn't do anything, in case you — Ow!" 

"Did that hurt?" Tony asked, without a trace of genuine apology. 

Kitt winced and shifted on his stool. "Yes!" 

"Good. Maybe it'll teach you to —" 

A tiny spit of sparks, followed by a glare. " _Ow!_ You did that on purpose!" 

Tony shrugged. "You call it vindictive, I call it avoidance conditioning." He clasped Kitt's left wrist more tightly in his left hand to stop the android from flinching and poked deeper, giving the tool a little twist.  

" ** _Ow!_** Stop that!" 

Tony wore a mirroring scowl, although he still hadn't looked up. "Here's some free advice: this is your own fault, so take your medicine like a good little boy." 

His partner studied him for a long moment, the perturbed crease between his finely drawn eyebrows deepening. "Tony, I don't understand why you're so angry at me. I thought we were clear about our relative roles, and that it's my responsibility to —" 

The quick glance he received was clearly a glare, but contained such an additional depth of emotional pain, verging on grief, that it shut him up at once. "Just… don't try to buy me time again, okay?" Tony's grip on his wrist tightened briefly, then shifted to cover his open palm, almost but not quite holding his hand. "Bad things happen when people buy me time." 

The expression on Kitt's face reflected the dawning of understanding, his aggrieved tone falling to a gentler timbre. "For one thing, I'm not a person. For another, if I hadn't intervened that bronze behemoth would have —" 

JARVIS detected a 7.28% increase in Tony's heart rate as he paused in his work and raised his head to meet the other A.I.'s gaze squarely, interrupting him with a voice both quiet and full of feeling: "You're the one thing in this world I can't afford to lose, Kitt. Take my word for it, and stay the hell out of combat when you're not properly armoured." 

Typically, Kitt wasn't about to back down. "I repeat: I'm not a person. I'm not human. And perhaps most importantly, I'm not Yinsen." 

"Not human? No argument there." He was still studying Kitt's face as if some mysterious secret was inscribed therein, a secret he longed to decipher. "Not a person? That's a whole different discussion. And if I hadn't suited up in time I'm pretty sure you could have ended up dying, no matter how damned tough you seem to think you are." 

Kitt shook his head, and removed his right hand from his knee to lay it over Tony's with gentle pressure. "Tony, I exist to protect you. You can't tell me not to do my job." 

"Is that what it is to you?" Tony shot back, with a flash of a humourless grin. "A job? Because if that's the case, I'll fire you and then rehire you as the intern who brings me coffee in the morning. Or I'll download you permanently into the car and tool around in you looking good every Saturday night, but —" And he leaned forward, his brown eyes shining with near-ferocity. "I don't want to ever — have to — do this — again!" 

Their gazes remained locked as Kitt's own lips curved in a smile both gentler and more sardonic. "You know, in my old life Michael used to drag me back in pieces on a fairly regular basis. It's not like this is something I'm unprepared for — in fact, it's something I expect. Truth be told, I've rather missed it." 

"I like to think I take better care of you than he ever did," Tony countered smartly, looking far from pacified. 

Kitt's pupils dilated as he leaned forward in turn to brush his lips against the human's mouth with exquisitely light pressure, still smiling. "I'd also like to think that you understand the conditions we operate under," he murmured, his hazel eyes half-lidded. "If you weren't who you are, perhaps things would be different. But you are exactly who you are, and I'm not going to stand by while our enemies try to take you apart." 

"I could always reprogram you." 

The curve of his lips increased. "You could try. But you'd fail." 

The human's smile grew both darker and more genuine, his own pupils widening. "Don't throw that kind of challenge in a genius's face, sweetheart. You never know where it might lead." 

"To bed, I'm hoping." He raised his right hand to Tony's cheek and pressed home a kiss both firmer and more lingering. "I very much want to celebrate the fact that we're both still here — after you've repaired my arm, _gently_ , if you please." 

"Kiss me again, and I'll think about it." 

Kitt did so, slipping his fingers into the short hair at the nape of their master's neck and tilting his head and parting his lips in the way the human seemed to like so much, and to the all-seeing gaze of JARVIS, backed up by enough processing power to manage a small city, it appeared that Tony wasn't doing very much thinking at all at that particular moment in time. 

THE END


End file.
